Cole W. Camplese

Podcasting

Just poking around the web this morning waiting for College Football to get started and started to read about the concept of "Podcasting." Its really just mp3 audio files done in radio show style that can be automatically moved to your portable mp3 player on the fly using a simple application. What is cool is that once you record your program, you can set it up to syndicate the material, ala RSS style, so applications can find the new posts and auto download them and dump to your mp3 device. What that means is that you can have a daily dose of audio content to listen to.

It started with a little article in Wired this morning that sort of brought it to life. I then went digging and found a couple of sites (1 & 2) that list podcast programming ... finally I found a how-to article that really lays out how to set this whole thing up on a Mac. Really cool and it has me thinking about how we could use it in this class, at the Solutions Institute, or for the School of IST. My co-worker, Bart Pursel and I have been toying with the idea of a bi-weekly Internet radio show, SBL Live that would cover innovation and interesting daily news. If you're interested, I'll show you all our first show's playlist. What I really think is cool is that it gives US the power to build our own media outlet ... how can the FCC deal with this? Who's rules do we play by in this world? If you think blogging is getting big, just wait ... with the explosion of mp3 players, this could be the next big thing ...

The questions I have for all of you are related to your usage ... would you listen to podcasts? Would you produce them? Would you like it if some of your assignments were built around this new concept? Take a look at some of the links and let us all know what you think-->

Nothing Like a Little Porn to Brighten the Class

I saw this little article in BBC Tech News this morning and thought I'd share it ... here's the teaser:

"Children at a secondary school in Bradford got a little more than they bargained for when an Internet search for information about the heart resulted in a page of links to hardcore pornography."

If you go on to read the article you'll see the snafu was due to a faulty search filtering technology. All this stuff is software based, so I thought it went along nicely with the readings we've been doing (uhm, you HAVE been reading haven't you). Seems to me if you are a major player -- or are trying to hold onto being a major player -- in the search space you better make sure your bread and butter technologies work. Looks like Ask Jeeves pulled the new technology before it "filtered" any more results ... teaching with technology never seemed so dangerous – and exciting!

In some unrelated news, Google -- the real search engine ... finally topped its IPO price of $108-$135.00. After weeks of performing below, or at, that level the Internet search giant broke the $135.00 ceiling and closed at $138.37. Not that you guys care too much, but it is interesting to note that what was once a niche category is now THE major player in Internet technology. Just very interesting ... You can read the article at the NY Time Online, but you'll have to register for free ... which I highly recommend!

While I'm reporting random tech news, the European Union wants to see Microsoft stay clear of owning the rights to a dominant DRM technology ... they feel it will strengthen Microsoft’s strangle hold on the desktop and the emerging digital media market. Take a look at this article in Wired and start to think about what it all means.

One more quickie for you -- insert porn joke here -- I read this morning in the Chronicle of Higher Education that Congress has praised several Colleges for their efforts to curb illegal file sharing. Guess who's in it? That's right our very own President Spanier ... interesting read and fits well with where we are going. You think all this stuff is really making a difference?

Interesting times to be alive! Porn in sixth grade, tech bouncing back, DRM battles just getting started, and PSU stopping illegal file sharing ... What are your thoughts on this or anything else?

What the Blog?

I've been using the Class Blog concept heavily this semester to great success -- in my opinion. I am asking students to post for both graded (Discussion Activity) and ungraded (random thoughts) posts ... I am getting 100% participation on the graded ones and about 60% on the ungraded ones. The latter blows my mind.

I have used the message board in other LMS tools extensively in previous semesters and have never gotten students to post a thing for ungraded items -- never! This semester they just seem to show up and write something. In addition, the quality and quantity of the graded posts is astonishing -- I think I am beginning to understand why. In the message board tools I've used in the past, students can't see everyone else's posts without actually clicking through them ... the blog comments are all visible from the get go. I think this is causing them to use the other posts as a signpost, or guideline, in their own posting. Very cool. I am in the process of building a study to ascertain the real reasons behind all this. I will post the findings here later this semester.

In addition to the Class Blog I have been having my students do Studio Labs ... not really related to the IST curriculum, a Studio Lab asks them to utilize digital media to communicate ideas or solutions. So far, I have gotten great feedback from students on these ... they just seem to love the concept and freedom to be creative. This week they turn in their most ambitious project yet -- interviews with selected faculty members within the School. I couldn't think of a better way for my students to understand the interdisciplinary nature of the research going on within IST. I will be posting pointers to these as well.

The last thing I am focusing on is the assessment of the digital media activities ... again, another study is in the works that I hope will provide a framework for building digital media into curricula that isn't focused on media. In other words, maybe create some sort of a roadmap, working guidelines, and data points for building digital expression into ALL subjects. I'll post results, so stay tuned!

Discussion Activity 05

Topic 5 discusses the various forms of Computer Software ... it does a decent job of covering the basics and should be required reading if you are new to the "computer thing." It starts out with a real basic overview of system software and operating systems, how the machine interacts with the system, what the GUI is, and then jumps into the basic types of application software.

Software isn't something you can get too jacked up about, but rest assured there are some VERY important things discussed in the topic ... so make sure you get in there and read it. Some of the more interesting things discussed are the approaches to programming and a brief history related to the types of computer languages. All-in-all, good stuff and important information to know ... Answer the question below and let us know what you think!

Discussion Activity 5

The GUI (pronounced Gooey) has made computing much more accessible to the masses. It also may be responsible for the explosion in popularity of the personal computer. Predict what the world would be like today if the graphical user interface were not invented. Would computers be as popular today without it? Would as many people be using computers without the GUI? How would our lives be different?